Ghostface Killah to drop new album that isn’t DOOMSTARKS in November

After what seems like an eternity since 2010’s Apollo Kids (TMT Review), Pretty Toney a.k.a. Tony Starks a.k.a. The Wally Champ a.k.a. Ghostface Killah has a new album due November 20. The record, titled Twelve Reasons to Die, will feature production from Black Dynamite composer Adrian Younge in what appears to be a heaven-sent collaboration for fans of vividly detailed crime stories, neo-blaxploitation, and heavy 70s soul. A comic book of the same name will follow in December. The RZA, who has also been keeping busy, will serve as Executive Producer and release the album on his newly minted Soul Temple Records.

In the mean time, you can check out Ghostface on "New God Flow," featured on the Kanye West-curated mixtape Cruel Summer due out September 18 on West's G.O.O.D. Music label.

There are so many indicators for when an indie band has “made it.” Perhaps a band has been invited to move into Morrissey’s Pool House of Sadness. Perhaps they were invited to handle snakes and squint menacingly with Nick Cave. Maybe this hypothetical band’s music was featured in an episode of Gossip Girl, or used without their consent in a political campaign, or maybe somewhere in South Korea a teenager with 15,000 YouTube followers just posted a video montage of the most romantic moments in Twilight with the badly edited first 50 seconds of this tribute video backed by said band’s song. All of these things are indicative of success on one level or another, sure. But could there be any greater tip-off that a band rules than getting their own fancy beer named after them?

Because if so, Lower Dens are living the f%^&ing dream. Not only have the Baltimore indie electric folkers (yeah, I just used the word “folker.” I’m sorry, EVERYONE.) expanded their US and European tour — complete with more than a few festival appearances — they’ve also just had a beer by Maryland’s Stillwater Artisanal Brewing named after them. In theory, the brew is inspired by the band’s song, “In the End is the Beginning” off their latest on Ribbon Music, Nootropics (TMT Review). There’s even a QR code on the bottle so that you can point your phone at a bottle and hear Lower Dens rock out, which is either amazing or slightly terrifying, depending on how you feel about THE FUTURE. Twelve Percent Imports plans to distribute the beer to 35 states.

TorrentFreak is reporting that new statistics have been released on the success of France’s two-year old law that gives digital copyright violators three chances to change their ways before formal legal proceedings begin. Managed by the Hadopi Agency, 3 million IP addresses were initially identified to be illegally sharing files in France. Of those, 1.15 million were considered worthy of a first notice (or in American parlance, a strike). From there, only 102,854 were issued a second warning, and only 340 of those were issued a third and final warning. That third warning, contrary to popular belief, was not a court summons, though, but just a third documented slap on the wrist. Those 340 individuals actually had one more chance to stop their pirating ways. Just like in the previous rounds, most of them did, but a scurrilous 30 continued to disobey Hadopi and are now being sued for their wrongdoings.

What do you call two years and a reported 12 million euro annual budget used to send a bunch of emails and letters that have resulted in 30 lawsuits? A resounding SUCCESS! Yes, the President of the Commission for Rights Protection, Mireille Imbert-Quaretta, is summing up their efforts thusly. Other lawmakers, in particular the French Culture Minister Aurelie Filipetti, disagree, calling the project, “an expensive way to send a million e-mails.” ZING!

While the continued decrease in offenders after each round of warnings does demonstrate that pirates can be ‘reformed’ through what the French government is calling ‘education,’ the initial problem that the law was supposed to help curb — the loss of income by rights holders from illegal file sharing — doesn’t seem to have been reversed. People who download and share licensed content illegally are not likely to go out and pay for said content when confronted about their activities. To the major label’s detriment, those folks are just not going to consume that content at all, nor are they going to be informed enough about that content to share it with their friends, go to the content creator’s concert, or buy any other merchandise that they can’t get for free online associated with the content. Major labels still think that suing people who are the pollinators of their artists popularity is the way to go, and now France has 30 examples to help them support this totally incorrect idea. Vive la Major Labels.

My aunt once told me a story about my grandmother, raising six kids in the rural Midwest during the 1950s, and how she would sometimes bundle all of them up in snowsuits, shove them outside, and say “Go make snowmen!!” And then she’d lock the door. The 4AD Sessions are kinda like that. Except instead of snotty-nosed farm children, our heroes are a well-dressed band of young Danish men. And instead of snowsuits, they have guitars and synths and stuff. Also, they’re not making snowmen, they’re making exquisitely-crafted northwoods indie pop. Plus there’s a camera crew. And our story is not set in the upper Midwest, it’s set on a privately-owned island called Osea in Essex. So yeah, it’s basically nothing like my aunt’s story.

But my, aren’t these 4AD Sessions a sight to behold! They’re like a travel ad for Scandinavian sadness. Filmed entirely outdoors in one day, the session shows the band, coats fluttering picturesquely in the wind as sailboats float serenely by, following the band’s day through songs recorded after high tide, late at night, and in the wee early hours of the morning. So who are these aforementioned natty Danes? Well, they’re called Indians, and they’re fronted by Copenhagen resident Søren Løkke Juul. They’ve only been playing shows since February, but they self-released a debut single in April, and since then have been playing shows with heavy hitters like Beirut, Bear in Heaven, Lower Dens, Retribution Gospel Choir, Savages, and Weird Dreams. And then they fell into the loving arms of 4AD, who signed Indians instantly. The Indians installment of the 4AD Sessions marks the beginning of this beeee-yoo-ti-ful relationship. The debut album for Indians is expected in early 2013. Until then, the band is playing shows with Dan Deacon and Glass Animals, and then hooking up with Other Lives for their American tour.

He will release Relief on November 5, “a 36 minute hypnotic roller coaster ride through the terrain of his unique vision. A haunted melody pinned to a bed of nails. A spinning ride through aural spaces.”

That tears it. Refused have freaking had it, you guys! Regardless of what their legions of (aging) fans want, they just cannot go on like this: playing sweaty, awesome, punk-charged reunion shows night after grueling night and ping-ponging back and forth from the US to Europe like a bunch of… I don’t know, things that ping-pong well but are also sentient enough to be existential about it! Which I guess probably don’t really exist. But either way! It’s for the birds. Or maybe The Byrds. Look, I don’t know.

What I do know is this: the band (say it with me, now) absolutely, positively REFUSES to overstay their re-welcome and has just announced their final US reunion show. It’s scheduled for November 5 at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles (which is in California, USA, IMO). Needless to say, the farewell show follows a whole shitload of wildly successful performances across North America and Europe this past summer (actually, if you’re in Europe of Australia, there’s still a relative shitload to go), at which many-a-30-something got drunker than he/she/I have been in a while.

Since we’re all so underground and punk and damn-the-man around here, I can also let you US fans in on the secret that the pre-sale for this auspicious show kicked off yesterday at noon and includes some nifty “limited edition bundles” available for purchase (bundles will include a VIP ticket and a “limited edition t-shirt with show date” with all fees and proceeds going to Syrentha Savio Endowment and Shirts for a Cure). You can access the pre-sale by refusing not to click here when your boss is out of the room or you have a break or something. There’s a good rebel.